Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2009

EF0 tornado, Doran to Nashua, Minnesota, June 17, 2009

Name: EF0 tornado, Doran to Nashua, Minnesota, June 17, 2009
Start: 2009-06-17T22:08:00.000Z
End: 2009-06-17T22:11:00.000Z
Location: Doran to Nashua, Minnesota

From Doran to Nashua, this EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Wilkin County on June 17, 2009, touching down at 5:08 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating: EF0
Date: June 17, 2009
Touchdown: 5:08 PM CDT (22:08 UTC)
Lifted: 5:11 PM CDT (22:11 UTC)
On the ground: 3 minutes
Path length: 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width: 25 yards (23 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Wilkin County
Touchdown point: 46.040, -96.390
Lift-off point: 46.030, -96.382
Record number: 0906171608-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak area of surface low pressure moved into extreme southeast North Dakota late on the afternoon of the 17th. Out ahead of the low, surface dew point values surged into the middle 60s with temperatures right around 80. One thunderstorm cell flared up over southeast Richland County, about 10 miles west of Fairmount, and continued to track nearly straight to the east. As the cell reached the Tenney/Nashua area, a brief tornado touchdown occurred. A second tornado also touched down near Doran.

A brief tornado touchdown in an open field just east of highway 75 was reported to the sheriff's office. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.

A brief tornado touchdown was reported near the Wilkin and Traverse County line. The tornado tracked for roughly a mile across open fields. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 17, 3:32 PM CDT, 1 hour 36 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 17, 3:32 PM CDT, 1 hour 36 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 17, 5:35 AM CDT, 11 hours 33 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND
535 AM CDT WED JUN 17 2009

MNZ003-017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ039-049-052-053-181045-
CLAY-SOUTH BELTRAMI-MAHNOMEN-SOUTH CLEARWATER-HUBBARD-WEST BECKER-
EAST BECKER-WILKIN-WEST OTTER TAIL-EAST OTTER TAIL-WADENA-GRANT-
CASS-RANSOM-SARGENT-RICHLAND-
535 AM CDT WED JUN 17 2009

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH
DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THUNDERSTORMS CONTAINING HEAVY RAIN ARE POSSIBLE IN SOUTHEAST
NORTH DAKOTA INTO WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA TODAY AND TONIGHT. RIVER
RISES ARE LIKELY ON THE WILD RICE NEAR ABERCROMBIE AND ON THE RED
UPSTREAM OF FARGO FROM RECENT HEAVY RAIN. ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAIN
MAY AGGRAVATE FLOODING CONCERNS HERE. THERE IS ALSO A SLIGHT RISK FOR
SEVERE STORMS THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT...WITH LARGE HAIL THE
MAIN THREAT. THERE IS ALSO THE CHANCE FOR AN ISOLATED TORNADO THIS
AFTERNOON IF SUNSHINE CAN BREAK THROUGH THE CLOUDS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY

PERIODIC CHANCES FOR THUNDERSTORMS...POSSIBLY SEVERE...WILL OCCUR
THURSDAY AND FRIDAY IN SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA AND WEST CENTRAL
MINNESOTA. THE MAIN THREAT WILL BE LARGE HAIL AND HEAVY RAIN.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED TODAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

MNZ001-002-004>009-013>016-NDZ006>008-014>016-024-026>030-038-054-
181045-
WEST POLK-NORMAN-KITTSON-ROSEAU-LAKE OF THE WOODS-WEST MARSHALL-
EAST MARSHALL-NORTH BELTRAMI-PENNINGTON-RED LAKE-EAST POLK-
NORTH CLEARWATER-TOWNER-CAVALIER-PEMBINA-BENSON-RAMSEY-
EASTERN WALSH COUNTY-EDDY-NELSON-GRAND FORKS-GRIGGS-STEELE-TRAILL-
BARNES-WESTERN WALSH COUNTY-
535 AM CDT WED JUN 17 2009

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH
DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

PERIODIC CHANCES FOR THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TODAY THROUGH
TONIGHT ACROSS ALL OF EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST
MINNESOTA. THE BIGGEST THREAT WILL BE HEAVY RAIN NEAR STRONGER
STORMS. THIS MAY CAUSE PONDING OF WATER IN POORLY DRAINED AND
URBAN AREAS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY

THE THREAT FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY
IN EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA. THE MAIN THREAT
WILL BE HEAVY RAIN AND THE POTENTIAL FOR LARGE HAIL.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

DK

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 17, 4:35 PM CDT, 33 minutes before

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Local storm report, Jun 17, 4:52 PM CDT, 16 minutes before

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The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z

10.1 hours before the tornado, 201 km from the path. June 17, 2009.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 368 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -43 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 831 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 70 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 154 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.6
0-3 km lapse rate: 4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z

1.9 hours after it, 201 km from the path. June 18, 2009.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 205 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -171 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 957 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1523 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 17 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.0
Supercell composite: -0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Wahpeton (BWP), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 170 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:06 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2009 tornado in Minnesota Every tornado in Minnesota since 1950 Warnings in force in Minnesota now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 17, 2009

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
June 17	2:18 PM CDT	EF0	Gage, NE	0.5	25
June 17	2:20 PM CDT	EF1	Washington, KS	8.8	200		$10,000
June 17	4:40 PM CDT	EF0	Wilkin, MN	0.1	25
June 17	7:27 PM EDT	EF0	Wayne, OH	3.8	100		$60,000
June 17	6:54 PM CDT	EF1	Buffalo, NE	1.1	200		$100,000
June 17	7:05 PM CDT	EF0	Buffalo, NE	0.2	25
June 17	7:10 PM CDT	EF0	Buffalo, NE	3.6	100
June 17	7:25 PM CDT	EF0	Todd, KY	0.2	30		$5,000
June 17	7:30 PM CDT	EF0	Freeborn, MN	1.8	50		$1,000
June 17	7:50 PM CDT	EF0	Custer, NE	0.1	20
June 17	8:00 PM CDT	EF2	Mower, MN	9.6	120	1	$2.0 million
June 17	8:02 PM CDT	EF0	Waseca, MN	2.3	50
June 17	8:38 PM CDT	EF0	Hall, NE	1.9	20		$5,000
June 17	8:50 PM CDT	EF0	Hamilton, NE	1.0	25
June 17	8:51 PM CDT	EF0	Mower, MN	0.1	15		$1,000
June 17	8:59 PM CDT	EF2	Hamilton, NE	5.1	450		$250,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.